Journalist Peter Harvey dies after battle with cancer

Veteran television journalist Peter Harvey has died on Saturday aged 68 after a four-month battle with pancreatic cancer.

With four decades of reporting behind him, Harvey was a stalwart of Australian journalism.

A Channel 9 journalist since 1975, he brought the news into lounge rooms across Australia, his deep baritone sign-off, "Peter Harvey [pause], Canberra," becoming a catchphrase, admired and mimicked by many.

During his time as a journalist, Peter Harvey covered most of the key events in Australian and world history.

As a member of the Canberra press gallery, he saw prime ministers Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and John Howard come and go, earning the respect of politicians of all parties.

He was the only Australian reporter with American forces when the first Gulf War broke out, reported on the sacking of Gough Whitlam in 1975, and travelled the globe, reporting from the White House, 10 Downing Street, and The Kremlin.

Fellow political correspondent Laurie Oakes remembers him as being "extraordinarily versatile" and able to "ad lib material where most of us would need a script".

One of the things I most admired about him was the way he mentored younger colleagues. Peter's was a generous spirit. He's a real loss to journalism.

Broadcaster Laurie Oakes

"Peter Harvey was a fierce competitor when we worked for rival networks, and a valued colleague in the 13 years we were together in the Nine Network's Canberra Bureau," Oakes told ABC News Online.

"He has been called 'a journalist's journalist'.

"Peter was best known for his time in Canberra, covering politics with distinction and earning the respect of politicians from all parties. But he was extraordinarily versatile - a war correspondent before his long stint in the national capital, and then turning his hand to everything from showbiz to crime reporting to commentary for 60 Minutes after transferring to Sydney in 1997.

"He was a talented broadcaster, able to ad lib material where most of us would need a script. One of the things I most admired about him was the way he mentored younger colleagues. Peter's was a generous spirit. He's a real loss to journalism."

Broadcaster and friend Ray Martin says he first met Harvey when he came to Washington.

"Then I just noticed his deep voice," he said.

"Since I've got to know him over the last 30 or 35 years at Nine, I don't hear the voice, I just hear the words.

"He writes beautifully and he writes with warmth and precision, that's pretty rare."

Gerald Stone, the founding producer of 60 Minutes in Australia and a Nine Network executive, says working with Harvey was an amazing experience.

"I think Peter was the very essence of what great television news is all about. Not only telling the facts, but that wonderful deep warm voice that touches people's hearts," he said.

"I have to say one of the highlights of my career was having hired him into television in the first place."

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Harvey was "a true newsman to his boostraps".

"Our nation’s media has lost a giant today with the death of Peter Harvey," she said in a statement.

"Peter Harvey was one of the greats and so will be greatly missed."

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott offered his condolences in western Sydney this morning.

"Peter Harvey... was the genial face of journalism in this country," he said.

"He was everything that we like and respect in the media and on behalf of the Coalition, I offer my deepest condolences to his family."

Early career

I think Peter was the very essence of what great television news is all about. Not only telling the facts, but that wonderful deep warm voice that touches people's hearts.

60 Minutes founding producer Gerald Stone

Born in Bondi in 1944, Peter Harvey came from a long line of journalists.

He began his career as a copy boy at The Daily Telegraph under Sir Frank Packer's ownership.

In a 2013 interview, Harvey recounted how the entire newsroom would regularly be fired by Sir Frank after a bad day at the races.

After retiring to the pub, they would wait to be reinstated by the duty editor and then hurry to get the newspaper to the presses in time for the next day.

"Then is exactly like now," he said of those times. "It's a job you have to do as well and professionally as possible ... and you just do it."

It was as a 19-year-old cub reporter that Harvey’s coverage of a 1964 gangland shooting won him a Walkley award, setting his career on an upward trajectory.

Reading an article in the American Newsweek magazine referring to the city of "Sidney" prompted Harvey to offer himself as the magazine's Sydney stringer, a job which he did for a period before being sent to cover the Vietnam conflict.

"Vietnam taught me to be very careful about all sorts of things," he told Jane Hutcheon in an interview for the ABC's One Plus One program aired in February this year.

"I saw all the famous American TV correspondents walking around in their combat suits so I had to go and buy one of these things," he said of his arrival in Saigon.

"Then I went and bought a gun. Fortunately, before I did anything else, I went back to the Newsweek bureau. They all just recoiled in horror and they said, 'You're asking to be shot dead! What's the matter with you? What you do is you get rid of all that stuff you’re wearing. You go back to your hotel. You buy the biggest, loudest Hawaiian shirt you can find. You make sure you never, ever wear anything that looks like a gun belt, and you look like a tourist.'

"It was great advice."

It was while in Vietnam that Harvey became aware of the impact of television on American audiences.

"There was no doubt from the reaction you were seeing that people were shocked, stunned, appalled, horrified... The full range of emotions,” he told Hutcheon.

She recalls the white braces he wore under his sports coat the day of that interview and how it made her smile. After weekly chemotherapy treatments, he was gaunt and frail.

"With a Peter Harvey report, you are not aware of the reporting," she said.

He was always fair, he was accurate, he reported many major stories. He always maintained the highest possible standards of his profession. Personally I had the highest possible regard for him.

Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser

"He is a storyteller who opens up the story like a parcel. And so it was with our interview.

"In an age where we are good at recounting our achievements, we often don't speak of the meaning of our lives when death is close by. Peter did. He reached out to people of all ages, not just those who have suffered and are suffering."

After stints as a radio reporter with 2UE and 2GB, Harvey and his wife Anne took a boat to London, where he briefly working for BBC Radio and The Express before moving to The Guardian, where he picked up a British Reporter of the Year award.

Approached in 1975 by Channel Nine news management to run their new Canberra bureau, Harvey began what was to be a distinguished career with the commercial network, including a long stint as its news director.

During his interview with Hutcheon, Harvey recalled the emergence of the Hawke and Keating Labor governments as highly significant, saying he had been very impressed with both men.

"[Malcolm] Fraser never used his colossal political muscle to say "fix this", whereas Keating and Hawke did: superannuation, floating the dollar, financial changes, education... changes that we still live with were seen through by Hawke and Keating," he said.

Mr Fraser said Harvey was "a most distinguished journalist" throughout his life.